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Worth noting a couple of negative reviews creeping in to the reviews of "The Lighthouse" in the UK, where Universal Medicine holds many of its courses and retreats. The Lighthouse responds below one of the reviews that they do more than host the events. Worth noting the user photos for a large copy of the Mona Lisa on the wall of one of the rooms and the mention of 'healing symbols' on the pillows in one of the reviews.
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3. In our room, we were bemused by large blue logo/symbols printed on our pillowcases. In fact when I saw them, I immediately joked that we were staying at a strange Cult's HQ. This was way before I even thought about googling; maybe I watched too much Dr Who in my youth.
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In the Library area (a sitting room on the ground floor, large pic of Mona Lisa on wall), Serge Benhayon's blue books were displayed plus plus a book on Leonardo da Vinci, one called "Bridging Foods", another called "Tuning In". No other books. The room directory informed us that books by Alice E Bailey were available too, but I did not see them. I looked at a couple of the blue books and was even more alerted to the strangeness of where we were staying.
6. B&B paying guests seemed to be tolerated and were almost ignored compared to some other people there, who were perhaps part of Universal Medicine or their "clients". I can only describe the staff as, "not with it" - no chat, banter or friendliness whatsoever; We felt extremely uncomfortable. Any requests were met with flat replies and not what you would expect in a service industry establishment.
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meh
I would watch the dvd's at krg every month and look at the members there . . . all the men dressed like ikeda and all the women dressed like mrs. ikeda, and I felt that there was something deeply wrong and kind of scary.
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Perfect descriptions and very astute observations. Diehard male Ikeda-bots do indeed emulate The Dear Leader & Japanese salaryman dress code. The WD / YWD in Japan also like to wear certain common bright pastel colors to all the official cult org. meetings. It's like some kind of "Leave It To Beaver", alternate world pretend show, time warp. Don't forget to also throw in the mandatory fake enthusiasm and default permanent plastic smiles.
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HitchYes, they are and yes it definitely is, right down the smallest detail.Quote
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Spartacus
I know for a fact that both the Dallas culture center and the Seattle culture center (what culture?) had an unaccessable "Presidential Office" hidden away upstairs. I am not a gambling man, but I would bet money that those secretive and off-limits-to-unimportant-members (except the privileged lackeys that do the cleaning) are still there. They are a stock feature with SGI centers in Japan, and everything about SGI.cult is crafted in the Japanese organizational model that we see repeated around the world.
I've seen and been in these Dear Leader Ikeda rooms in two different cult kaikans in America (one big, and one small). They are treated and regarded as if one were allowed to enter The Oval Office. Very strict and very hush-hush. The knowledge of their existence is only shared with hardcore longtime trusted deep faith members. It's a hidden gakkai cult org. secret.Quote
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Spartacus
When I joined in 1972 there was no cult.org center in Texas. The area senior leader's converted garage was used to house a few items that were meant to be placed in some future Kaikan. There wasn't much there besides boxes of cult.org publications awaiting redistrbution to other texas localities, mainly just a cheap (homemade with wall panels) butsudan with a regular small-sized Gohonzon. And of course, President Pig's desk and chair (and picture). I spent many an hour gazing at that empty chair, with my senior leader's words echoing in my head, "having his desk and chair here is just like having Senseless himself here!" What a crock of magical mystical crap! Somehow, I just couldn't make the connection. I had the same rational problem with always having a framed picture of the Old Devil garishly displayed on the wall, pretending he was magically watching us fight the sleep demons during those torturously long chanting sessions, while mystically "listening" to our prayers to the magic scroll and assessing our "life condition".
I was told this exact same thing when given a tour of the Ikeda room as a YMD. "If we work hard enough for Cousin Rufus, Sensei will feel our efforts, our daimoku will call him here and he will come visit our kaikan. It all depends on our pure faith, ichinen, and mission to respond to him. Work hard for our area to have Sensei come in person to give us guidance and encourage us." And with that, you are slowly ushered out, given one last glance as the door closes, the lock turns and the hardcore Japanese WD cult org. queen tightly grasps the key into her fisted hand and places it back into her pocket, to be put back into its special keepsake location.
I was stunned when I learned of these rooms and actually saw them. Stunned. I'm sure they thought I was overwhelmed in a positive way, but in reality, it was just the opposite for me. On the outside, I was speechless. On the inside, I was saying to myself, "Holy sh*t (!), this is w-e-i-r-d, creepy and definitely NOT normal. Whoa." I honestly didn't know *what* to think, for a few days afterwards.
- Hitch